Maximum Metal Rating Legend

Athanator – Earth Of Blood – 2005 – Dirrty Records

Track Listing 1. Earth Of Blood 2. Childrens Of Darkness 3. Perverse Paradise 4. Even The Angels Fall 5. Race Of Cain 6. A Death In A Hole 7. Walk Down The Dark 8. Rage 9. The Savior Of God 10. The Cold Hour Before Dawn 11. Without Choice 12. Metabolic Damage 13. Schedule To Die 14. Healing By The Blood 15. Frightened By The Bombs

Hopefully this is a solid thrash adventure.

Athanator is based out of Medelin, Columbia and was founded by Jaime Ocampo, Guillermo Alzate and Gioseppe Restrepo in 1989. Comprised of Jaime Ocampo (Vocals and Guitar), Eder Zapata (Guitar), Kike Ramirez (Bass), and Juan Sanchez (Drums), however, unfortunately, I am unable to give anymore background work due to the fact that the bands website is in Spanish, and yours truly knows enough Spanish to scrape by in case of emergency. If anyone can find more, please fill me in.

Our opening track raced out of the gate offering up some furious and pounding sounds. Complete with a snarly growl from Jaime Ocampo and the end result leaves the listener in a state of shock. Unfortunately, Earth Of Blood is not chalked full of that type of aggression. There are other furious type tracks, complete with solo breaks (mainly guitars), however, it is unable to offer up the polished sound it deserves. Then comes tracks like “Perverse Paradise”, “Even The Angels Fall”, “A Death In A Hole”, and “The Savior Of God” offering up a slower, more death/doom related feel, that do not play in to the vocal strengths that they poses. Unfortunately, the final 5 tracks have nothing special to offer except a sound reminiscent of a bad garage band.

Here we have a prime candidate for garage band of the 80s. This has a sound that is very similar to early Overkill, Destruction, and even Anthrax. Only in style, productionwise, not so much, Athanator has times (more often than not) when they sound like a garage band that is just starting out. A prime example of this is “Walk Down The Dark”, yes, drummers are supposed to be able to drive a beat for the band, but let us not forget the bass which gives a song depth and style. On this tune, the vocals are just screams and growls, the drums are not blended with the band, instead they sound metallic (not metal, and not in a good way), and the bass sound is virtually non existent. Call it poor production and lack of mixing, as I am sure that played a role in it. The bottom line is this, get the record if you wish to reminisce about yesteryear, you don’t mind raspy, one dimensional type vocals, you can overlook the doom/death/nu metal tracks, and you do not mind basement like production or demo standards if you will. The songwriting is nicely done, but my advice to the band is this, do not stray from the aggressiveness, it works. A slower pace is ok, if your vocalist has the range and ability to pull it off.

Rating: 6/10. While a thrash band, they are unable to decide which musical direction they wish to go in. The frenzies seem to go better with Ocampo’s vocal range, however, there are spots of slowness (Death and Doom metal) and even distortion like you would hear in Nu-Metal that prevent this from going down in history.



--IcedMojo 6.22.06